SUNDAY: The final day to see Orleans Collection at NOMA. This exhibition shows a selection of works from the French Regent, Phillippe II, Duke of Orleans’ magnificent collection. The must-see show brings together masterpieces by Veronese, Valentin, Poussin, Rubens, and Rembrandt that formerly graced the walls of the Palais Royal in Paris. Make sure you see it this weekend before the exhibition closes on Sunday, January 27th!

Saturday, December 15th, 10 am - 5 pm: Degas Gallery is holding our annual Holiday Smalls Art Show! This is a wonderful one-day sale of small artworks that are ideal for holiday gifts. All works will be 30 inches or less.

This Saturday, December 1 is Julia Street’s second annual Champagne Sparkle. On this lovely First Saturday, galleries welcome the holiday season with evening exhibition openings, champagne tastings, and lights lining the street. It is a night that truly glistens, and we hope to see you there!

The event is free and open to the public and will take place Saturday, December 1st from 6-9 pm on Julia Street.

Friday, November 2, The Rose Crystal Tower, a sculpture by world renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, was unveiled at the New Orleans Botanical Garden. At 22 feet tall, this soaring bright pink sculpture welcomes City Park visitors as they enter the garden. David Kerstein, president of the Helis Foundation, which is underwriting the sculpture in the park, says "Everything we do, in particular with our programs with the various museums, is to ensure there is an educational component to it. Young people from public and charter schools will have the opportunity to see this art without charge, and hopefully it will inspire them.” We are thrilled to have this beautiful piece of public art in our city, and cannot wait to go see it!

This past weekend, the Decorative Arts Trust held a fall symposium in New Orleans to introduce its members to the rich history of the city in timing with the tricentennial. Throughout their stay, members were led on lovely historic tours exploring the French Quarter, Garden District, and Creole plantations with New Orleans historians. Additionally, several art historians from New Orleans gave talks throughout the weekend. Cybèle Gontar, Degas Gallery owner/director, gave a talk Sunday morning on a show she recently curated at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Salazar: Portraits of Influence in Spanish New Orleans, 1785-1802.

We are excited to attend O What a Night! a gala dinner and auction at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art with one of our artists, Marcia Holmes tomorrow night! Marcia’s painting Heart to Heart is featured in the Louisiana Contemporary show and will be auctioned along with the work of many other local artists at this event. O What a Night! is a fantastic event here in New Orleans, celebrating southern art, culture, and cuisine. This glamorous night not only supports the many talented artists of New Orleans, but also the mission of the Ogden: “to broaden the knowledge, understanding, interpretation and appreciation of the visual arts and culture of the American South.”

Marcia’s painting Heart to Heart, 2017 is 31 x 31 in. framed, pastel on paper. You can see more details about the piece and the auction here.

This morning, the residents at the Joan Mitchell Center opened up their studios to the public for the second Community Coffee event of the season.

The Joan Mitchell Center is an artist residency center here in New Orleans with a mission to “support local, national, and international contemporary visual artists…{by} offering both time and space for artists to create work in a contemplative environment.” Each month they host an event that is open to the public.

After meeting the residents last month, we were so excited to come back to see what they have been working on. The artists have clearly been working hard, as they each had an impressive amount of work to show, and it was a treat talk with them about their projects. A memorable and engaging piece by Paul Rucker was one that we especially enjoyed. Rucker stuck large yellow and white post-it notes to the walls of his studio and placed a pile of markers in the middle of the room. As he played a beautiful harmony on his cello (did we mention he’s also an incredibly talented cellist?!), Rucker invited visitors to write something they worry about or fear on the yellow post-its and an adjective to describe themselves on the white. What a beautiful interactive piece - one that made us think about ourselves, our inner thoughts, our power, our voice, the community, the world, and the interconnectedness of it all.

We are blown away by the creativity and intelligence of all of the artists at the Joan Mitchell Center. Read more about them here or see it in person at the next Community Coffee on Wednesday, November 14th.

Every first Saturday of October, hundreds of galleries and shops throughout New Orleans open their doors late night for Art for Art’s Sake, the second largest art event of the year in New Orleans. We are excited to be opening our October exhibition “Options” by Zona Wainwright on this chic and exciting evening. Degas Gallery will be open from 6-9 pm tonight, October 6. Please come by to enjoy the show and meet artist Zona Wainwright!

Art for Art’s Sake is a phrase that emerged in the 19th century arguing that art can be “good” because of its formal qualities rather than having a “deeper” context rooted in something deemed more important such as history or religion. This phrase led to ground-breaking artistic movements that forever changed the art world as we know it. Today it is used more casually, to defend the freedom of artistic expression. Either way we are a fan - Happy Art for Art’s Sake! Hope to see you tonight.